5 years later we still dealing with this crap and a decimated athletic program. And a divided fanbase. All the while the person responsible for this is being lauded as some great god and enjoying himself. Some still clamoring for the good ole days . Too say people are somewhat mentally crazy is an understatement. SMH!
So disingenuous a response or simply a hater. No sense in getting into a pro/con debate about Pitino but I will say this.
Up until the McGee scandal rocked the world, Pitino in his entire career was not a scandalous coach. The personal marriage scandal he was being extorted over had nothing to do with the program or the school. Besides, it was his first year here and he hadn't even proved this UofL thing was going to work. His affair had zero effect on the success or failure of the teams he coached.
But the stripper scandal all but destroyed the program and again the facts show Pitino had no knowledge of the extent of it all. The players were keeping it a secret from him because he would have done something and maybe ruin the teams title chances. He did after all boot Chane the following season when the team had serious chance to defend their title.
But he ultimately is responsible for his team and the subsequent years were doomed regardless of what happened with the NCAA. The Bowen thing was a desperate move and it backfired in his face. There was no real option but to move on.
I don't see but one real scandal and that was overhyped like it was the worst of all time. Pitino never was a cheater in the sense of Bruce Pearl or Kelvin Sampson and he certainly didn't need to be to win a lot of games.
The point of the thread was the play on the court. The way Pitino's teams performed and there is no doubt he would have this deep group of players performing much better than they currently are under Mack.
I know a lot of Cards fans that would love to have Pitino back. They know he was not paying recruits or players so he could win basketball games. They know he held his players to standards required to be a winner. They also know that it wouldn't work him coming back because there's just too many people who hate the man as we have seen in this thread.